Fruity tax-dodging cargo cult Apple has an odd way of supporting developers who prop up its app store.

Our deep throats who make Apple apps are always muttering about what a nightmare writing Apps for iOS is, but the way it has treated Bogdan Popescu and who is the developer behind Dash has to take the cake.

Writing in his bog Popescu said that Apple has pulled his popular app for no reason and accused him of fraud. All Popescu did was send Apple a request to migrate his account from an individual one to a company one. Once he verified my company with its D-U-N-S Number, Apple notified him that some features in iTunes Connect won’t be available during account migration. Then his iTunes Connect account started showing as “CLOSED” and his apps were removed from sale.

Then Popescu received a “Notice of Termination” email, saying that his account was terminated due to fraudulent conduct. Popescu called them again and they said they can’t provide more information, but they could tell him that whatever they decided a was final and there was nothing he could do about it.

Later he was told that Apple had found evidence of App Store review manipulation, which is something he said he never done. Normally we would say the jury is out on such claims, but it seems a strange coincidence that this issue with reviews pops up at the same time as he is trying to migrate his account.

In the meantime, Popescu can’t update Dash for iOS anymore and can’t distribute it outside of the App Store.

Even the Tame Apple Press thinks the whole thing is a bit mad. Dash has existed in the App Store without issue. However the generally feeling is that if Apple says you are a fraud, or posting fake reviews you must be. After all Apple never makes mistakes, cocks up or speaks lies.

Continuing in what appears to be a steady streak of bad luck, antisocial social networking site Facebook has been accused of click fraud and extortion methods by advertising outfit Limited Run.

Limited Run claims that 80 percent of the clicks they paid for were from bots. Apparently, the company tried different analytics tools but got identical results.

The company refrained from directly accusing Facebook of using bots to boost ad revenue. However, it found the matter quite strange, even more so after unsuccessful attempts to contact Facebook.

It is also quite angry with Facebook over not letting it change its name, and it apparently took many tries to even get a call back. Limited Run claims Facebook agreed to allow the name change, provided the former spits out $2,000 or more in advertising monthly.

Limited Run expressed its frustration in no uncertain terms. It said the company should delete its page because Facebook is a bunch of “scumbags” and Limited Run doesn’t “have the patience for scumbags."

Aussie coppers are warning of a bloke posing as an Apple sales rep who has been flogging bags of cornflour and Chinese newspapers pretending that they are iPads and iPhones.

Normally we would have thought that it would be a tough sale to convince an Apple fanboy that bags of cornflower and old newspapers were shiny Apple gear, but it seems the conman thinks that if you wave something with an Apple logo on it, you will have a queue of fanboys in front of you in seconds. Fair enough, as this has been Jobs' Mob's business model for a while.

Police say the scammer went to a restaurant at suburban Smithfield on Monday with what appeared to be a genuine Apple identity card and offered Apple iPads and iPhones for sale at a discounted rate for a bulk purchase. His victim inspected looked at some genuine goods then negotiated a $6000 deal for five iPads and 10 iPhones.

The fake salesman handed over what appeared to be the identical packages and left with the cash. Inside the packages were the corn flour and Chinese newspapers, which were unable to connect to iTunes. According to the Sydney Morning Herald the bloke had a heavy European accent, was of Mediterranean appearance aged about 30 to 35, 165 centimetres tall and with a stocky build and short brown to grey hair.

Aussie government workers are in hot water after they formed a company to bid for an IT contract and awarded it to themselves.

The Victorian government's IT agency is being investigated by Coppers after an audit revealed that the public servants awarded themselves a contract that led to work worth $1.5 million. Six contractors and staff have been fired and there is an organisation-wide review of CenITex, the body charged with centralising public sector technology services.

Two CenITex project managers used a two-day-old shelf company to bid for a tender in May last year. They then sat in on the selection panel, then awarded themselves the contract. They were able to underbid other tenderers, including IBM. They won a contract to deliver ''hosting services'' for $145,000, but since then pocketed $1.5 million for work they contracted to others.

A government audit found that CenITex failed to vet the shelf company's credentials. Police were asked by CenITex to investigate two staff members for possible fraud and obtaining secret commissions.

The problem is that that the former staff told the cops that they had declared their interest in the company, and had approval from higher levels of management for the work to be awarded to their company. This could get very messy.

US model, Michael “Shagg” Washington “Shagg” is suing the Rock Star because it based Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on his life.

According to GamePron Shagg wants $250 million, a quarter of the game’s profits, because the lead character is a lot like his life. He’s claiming fraud, misappropriation of likeness and copyright infringement.

Shagg met up with Rockstar developers to answer questions on “his street life including how the teen-agers in his gang rode around on bicycles.” Afterwards the developers said that if they included him in the game, they’d drop him a bell.

Six years later he saw GTA: San Andreas, featuring a character who looked like him, and acted like him, too. Looking at images of ‘CJ’ and comparison to his photos from that year and other evidence, it became clear that Rockstar had stolen his image and never paid him, the lawsuit claims.

Take Two‘s said that the lawsuit is completely without merit and will vigorously defend itself in the matter.”

Man sues for using his image in GTA:SA

US model, Michael “Shagg” Washington “Shagg” is suing the Rock Star because it based Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on his life.According to GamePron: http://www.gamepron.com/news/2010/12/08/man-sues-rockstar-for-using-his-image-in-grand-theft-auto-san-andreas/#ixzz17bRvACylShagg wants $250 million, a quarter of the game’s profits, because the lead character is a lot like his life. He’s claiming fraud, misappropriation of likeness and copyright infringement.GTA: San AndreasShagg met up with Rockstar developers to answer questions on “his street life including how the teen-agers in his gang rode around on bicycles.”Afterwards the developers said that if they included him in the game, they’d drop him a bell.Six years later he saw GTA: San Andreas, featuring a character who looked like him, and acted like him, too.Looking at images of ‘CJ’ and comparison to his photos from that year and other evidence, it became clear that Rockstar had stolen his image and never paid him, the lawsuit claims.Take Two‘s said that the lawsuit is completely without merit and will vigorously defend itself in the matter.”

M86 Security has reported that a new version of the Zeus Trojan has been stealing money from bank accounts. This has been going on since early July and the amount of stolen money amounts to about $1 million.

The agency deems the virus a “sophisticated and dangerous threat” the likes of which they’ve never seen before. A total of 3000 accounts has been affected, all of them belonging to a still anonymous British bank.

The deal was as follows - if/when the account has more than £800, the virus transfers the funds to “mule accounts”, which are already penetrated accounts of other online banking customers. In the end, it covers up the trail by showing fake bank balances.

The virus exploits “security holes” in Microsoft IE and/or Adobe Reader and then lies dormant until the user connects to his/her bank account. Furthermore, M86 says that this threat “cannot be detected by traditional security software”.

Naturally, despite the fact that it won’t help, users are still advised to take measures to protect themselves, which pretty much means buy more antivirus programs. As for the Adobe Reader security hole, I guess the advice should be to just not read anymore as it might make you too smart to handle.

The kiwi who claimed that his compression technology would make him richer than Bill Gates will face sentencing tomorrow.

Philip James Whitley told investors that he had invented a revolutionary form of data compression and managed to rustle up $5.3 million in investment. At one point he had his own bodyguards, owned two black 300C Chryslers, and bought a $2 million mansion in Redwood Valley.

He has now been charged with two counts of making a false statement as a promoter in 2007. Needless to say his claims were a little incorrect. Whitley's company NearZero did really well on claims that he had invented and patented a revolutionary "lossless" method of compressing data.

When he was convicted in May, the court heard how the technology could not have been patented because it didn't exist, and that Whitley's presentation to investors, and the documentation he supplied to investors, were false.